Parents Guide for
Men in Black (1997)

As Laurel tries to tell James about Edgar hiding under a table their standing against, he gets the wrong idea about comments (and gestures) she makes. Linda says, "There's something I have to show you" and "You really need to see this" while pointing down, but James thinks she's pointing to -- and talking about -- something else and tells her she needs to slow down. Moments later after he figures out what she's talking about, he accuses her of "coming on like some drunken prom date" while she complains about men always reading innuendo into anything a woman says.

Edgar's truck is pulverized by a crashing spaceship, and moments later the farmer is pulled into the crater (screams and eating sounds are heard) and is killed (not seen) and his skin is thrown to the top of the crater (briefly seen) as the alien fits into his body. Man has poison sprayed down his throat and dies. A man has his neck stabbed and dies. Some aliens are blown to pieces.

10 "s" words (with 1 more incomplete "piece of..."), 3 slang terms regarding male genitals (the "p" and "d" words), 15 hells, 11 damns, 6 "ass" words, and 2 uses of "God damn" and 1 use each of "Swear to God," "Oh my God," and "My God" as exclamations.

Some small aliens smoke, and later when they're leaving, one of them takes several cartons of smokes with him.

It is bad enough that Tommy Lee Jones lights up a cigarette while waiting for his partner outside the morgue... but it is even more disturbing to show a group of aliens so addicted to tobacco that they have to take several cartons of Marlboros with them while fleeing planet earth. Equally disturbing is the fact that this obvious brand depiction is likely the result of a product placement deal with the studio. Using a standardized scoring system, this film received a smoking rating of 4 Butts (on a scale of 0-4 Butts). For more information on the impact of onscreen smoking and the initiation of youth tobacco use, or for more information on the rating system, visit www.smokescreeners.org.

The appearance of some of the alien creatures, Edgar, and the final monster might be scary to younger viewers, but most of their appearances are done with some -- or a lot of -- humor.